Technical Field
The present invention relates to a toner for electrostatic charge image development, and more specifically to a toner for electrostatic charge image development which achieves both low temperature fixability and a heat-resistant storage property and has excellent chargeability, fixing separation property, and flowability.
Description of Related Arts
Recently, with the progress of colorization and an increase in speed of copying machines, an environmentally friendly toner with low cost and high image quality has been demanded in electrophotographic fields. In order to meet this demand, conversion is progressing from a conventional crushed type toner to a chemical toner. As a method for producing a chemical toner, various methods have been examined, and products produced by some of these methods are on the market. However, there is a demand to further lower costs of copying machines or printers on which a toner is mounted, and demands for toner characteristics for achieving high image quality are further increasing.
Further, recently, in printers and copying machines, as the transition from analogue system to digital system further progresses, there are strong demands for improvement in a printing speed and a decrease in power consumption to be used as well as high resolution. As measures therefor, a decrease in fixing temperature of a toner is increasingly demanded. In the related art, a decrease in fixing temperature of a toner has been studied in many cases, and as a representative study thereof, one using a crystalline material is exemplified.
For example, a technique disclosed in JP 2002-287426 A (corresponds to US 2003/039910 A1) has been proposed in which a high-quality image having excellent low temperature fixability and a favorable storage property can be obtained by adjusting a dispersed domain diameter of a crystalline polyester resin in a toner containing a crystalline polyester resin and an amorphous resin. In addition, a technique disclosed in JP 2006-106727 A has been proposed in which both of excellent low temperature fixability and storage stability can be achieved by defining a lamellar structure of a crystalline polyester resin and disposing the lamellar structure on the surface of a toner and thus a high image density without fogging can be obtained.
However, there is still room for improvement in these toners of the related art in that both the low temperature fixability and the storage stability are achieved and important qualities, as toner performance and image quality, such as fixing separation property, chargeability, and toner flowability are also satisfied.